AUSTIN, texas — Rallies against stricter limits on firearms took place at state capitols across the U.S. on Saturday.

The size of crowds at each location varied — from dozens of people in South Dakota to 2,000 in New York. Large crowds also turned out in Connecticut, Tennessee and Texas.

Activists promoted the “Guns Across America” rallies primarily through social media. The rallies were organized by Eric Reed, an airline captain from the Houston area who in November started a group called “More Gun Control = More Crime.” Its Facebook page has been “liked” by more than 17,000 people.

The crowd swelled to more than 800 amid balmy temperatures on the steps of the pink-hued capitol in Austin, where speakers took the microphone under a giant Texas flag with “Independent” stamped across it.

“The thing that so angers me, and I think so angers you, is that this president is using children as a human shield to advance a very liberal agenda that will do nothing to protect them,” said state Rep. Steve Toth, referencing last month’s school massacre in Newtown, Conn.

Toth, a first-term Republican lawmaker from The Woodlands outside Houston, has introduced legislation banning within Texas any future federal limits on assault weapons or high-capacity magazines, though such a measure would violate the U.S. Constitution.

Also on Saturday, five people were accidentally wounded in shootings at gun shows across the country.

At the Dixie Gun and Knife Show in Raleigh, N.C., three people were wounded when a 12-gauge shotgun discharged while its owner unzipped its case for a law enforcement officer to check it at a security entrance.

In Medina, Ohio, a gun dealer was checking out a semi-automatic handgun he had bought Saturday when he accidentally pulled the trigger. The bullet struck the floor, then a longtime friend of the dealer.

And in Indianapolis, a man was loading his .45-caliber semi-automatic when he shot himself in the hand as he was leaving the Indy 1500 Gun and Knife Show at the state fairgrounds.

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